A BRAZILIAN man reportedly killed in a car crash shocked his mourning family when he showed up alive at his funeral.
Relatives of Ademir Jorge Goncalves, 59, had identified the bricklayer as the victim of a car crash in Parana state, in southern Brazil, AP reports.
But Goncalves had not died. He had spent the night chatting with friends at a truck stop.
Goncalves did not learn about his own funeral until the service had already started the following day.
It is customary for funerals in Brazil to be held within 36 hours of a death.
As soon as he realised the mistake, Goncalves rushed to the funeral to let his family know he was not dead.
“The corpse was badly disfigured, but dressed in similar clothing,'' a police spokesman said, according to AP.
“People are afraid to look for very long when they identify bodies, and I think that is what happened in this case.”
Goncalves’ niece, Rosa Sampaio, told the O Globo newspaper that some family members were not sure the body was Goncalves.
"My two uncles and I had doubts about the identification,'' she told O Globo. "But an aunt and four of his friends identified the body, so what were we to do? We went ahead with the funeral.''
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